Implementation of the Action Plan for the Implementation of the OGP Initiative in the Republic of Croatia for the period 2022-2023

In 2020, upon the expiration of the third Action Plan for the implementation of the Open Government Partnership initiative, the Office for NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia began drafting the Action Plan for the implementation of the Partnership for Open Government initiative for the next two years.
 
With the intention of engaging citizens and civil society in the process of creating the Action Plan, as during the creation of previous Action Plans, the Office for NGOs launched a public consultation on priority activities that should be undertaken in the period from 2020 to in 2022 in order to achieve the goals of implementing the Open Government Partnership initiative in different areas. The consultations were open on the e-Consultation portal from 9 June to 1 July 2020. A total of 12 comments were received and the Report on the consultation was published.
 
However, due to the covid pandemic, and the earthquakes in the City of Zagreb and Sisak-Moslavina County, there was a deviation from the initially planned plan for the development of the 4th Action Plan. Due to these delays, the implementation period of the Action Plan was changed from the initially planned period 2020 - 2022 to the period 2021 - 2023.
 
Based on the proposals received during the consultation on the priorities of the 4th Action Plan and the proposals received during the meetings with the aim of monitoring the implementation held with the (co)leaders of the measures and activities from the 3rd Action Plan at the end of 2019 and information obtained from the Report on the Implementation of the 3rd Action Plan (which were reported as planned continuation of activities), and the Plan of legislative activities for the year 2021, the Action Plan for the period 2021-2023. acquired its first outlines.
 
In January 2021, in line with the agreements and conclusions of the meeting of the Council for the OGP Initiative held on December 15, 2020, the members of the Council were provided with a form for proposing implementation activities of the Action Plan for the implementation of the Partnership for Open Government initiative in the Republic of Croatia for the period from 2021 to 2023. All the proposals received, together with those mentioned earlier, were combined into the first version of the draft Action Plan for the period from 2021 to 2023.
 
At the end of March 2021, the first draft of the Action Plan for the implementation of the OGP Initiative for the period 2021 - 2023, i.e. a list of measures and activities for the next two-year period, was sent to all members of the Council to comment and propose additional measures from the scope of their work.
 
After the meeting of the Council of the OGP initiative, held on 26 May 2021, where the draft Action Plan was discussed, internal e-Consultations on the draft Action Plan were open from 29 June to 7 July 2021 to all members of the OGP Council, and the Report was published.
 
Based on the proposals received during the consultation on the priorities of the Action Plan for the Implementation of the OGP initiative in the Republic of Croatia for the period 2020 - 2022, and the contributions of competent state administration bodies and the members of the Council through consultative meetings and other working methods, the final draft of the new Action Plan was prepared. The Final Draft was open for public consultation   from 10 December 2021 to 3 January 2022 and the Report on the conducted consultation was published. 
 

At its 132nd session, held on 14 July 2022, the Government of the Republic of Croatia adopted the Action Plan for the implementation of the initiative Partnership for Open Government in the Republic of Croatia for the period 2022 - 2023.

The priority areas covered by the Action Plan were:
 
  • transparency,
  • fight against corruption,
  • openness,
  • participation of citizens/civil society in the processes of creating, implementing and monitoring public policies,
  • implementation of the Partnership for Open Government at the local and regional level and
  • sustainability of the Open Government Partnership initiative.
For each of these areas, measures and implementation activities were defined that need to be implemented in order to achieve the set goals - a total of 16 measures and 47 activities.
 
The implementation of the Action Plan lasted until 31 December 2023. The same date was specified as the deadline for the implementation of ongoing activities, whose implementation will continue after the end of the implementation of the Action Plan.
 
The implementation of the Action Plan was monitored and coordinated by the OGP Council and the Office for NGOs, providing logistical and expert support to the work of the Council.
 

At the 44th session of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, held on 28 November 2024, the Report on the Implementation of the Action Plan for the Implementation of the Open Government Partnership initiativa in the Republic of Croatia for the period 2022-2023 was adopted.

Out of a total of 47 activities, 31 activities (66%) were fully implemented, while 7 activities (15%) were significantly implemented. The remaining 9 activities (19%) have been implemented to a lesser extent or the start of their implementation is expected. Namely, in measure 5 - Improvement of transparency and financing of the referendum activity, a prerequisite for the implementation of activities was the amendment of the law prescribing the implementation of the referendum, which would prescribe the way of establishing and keeping records, i.e. more clearly regulate the issues of transparency of the financing of the referendum activity. The activities carried out to a lesser extent are part of measure 6 - Improving the transparency of activities and financing of programs and projects of civil society organizations. For this measure, preparations have been conducted for the creation of a new information system for monitoring and evaluating the allocation of financial resources to associations that implement programs and/or projects of interest for the common good, but the contract on the start of the creation of the information system has not yet been signed. The delay in the implementation of measure 8 - Improvement of the normative framework for the media was due to work on the European Act on Freedom of the Media, which entered into force on 7 May 2024, and the provisions of which will be fully applied from 8 August 2025. Two activities within the measure 14 - Additional improvements to the implementation of public consultations were also carried out to a lesser extent, given that the new Act on Better Regulations Policy Instruments, which consolidated and improved the basic instruments of better regulations policy in one place, including public consultations, entered into force on 1 January in 2024. The Regulation on the methodology and procedure for the implementation of policy instruments of better regulations, as an accompanying by-law, foresees the adoption of Guidelines for the implementation of policy instruments of better regulations within 90 days from the date of entry into force of the Regulation (expected by the end of 2024), which will also contain revised guidelines for the implementation of consultations with the public, which will partially implement the measure. Also, considering that part of the activities of the Action Plan related to the adoption of new normative solutions of other documents, which were adopted at the end of the implementation period of the 4th Action Plan, their concrete effects will be assessed only in the upcoming period.

In the implementation of the Action Plan, the following significant results with direct benefits for citizens were achieved:
  • the e-Consultation system has been technologically, processually and functionally improved and expanded: the interface has been modernized, the application adapted to different types of devices (responsive design) and adapted for use at the level of local and regional self-government units (JLP(R)S). The Lobbying Act was drafted and adopted, and entered into force on 1 October 2024;
  • the work on enhancing the transparency of public authorities in relation to the proactive publication of information continued, as well as the consultations with the public in the decision-making process, and ensuring the publicity of the work of public authorities, and promoting the reuse of information and open data. Systematic trainings were conducted on the implementation of the Act on the Right to Access to Information; the Regulation on criteria, standards and procedures for financing and contracting programs and projects of interest for the common good implemented by associations; on the use of the improved Central Catalog of official documents; the application of regulations governing the area of personal data protection with an emphasis on the General Data Protection Regulation; and implementation of consultations with the interested public;
  • in the area of fiscal transparency, the Ministry of Finance has increased the frequency of updating data in machine-readable form which are available on the website, while the application on the payments from the state budget by suppliers has been expanded to include a larger number of transactions, and searching is enabled by more parameters than before.
 

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